Safeguarding the Environment

Going Landfill Free

We are continually looking for new ways to reuse, recycle and recover energy when disposing of manufacturing by-products. Our current efforts include composting, recycling, energy production, and the provision of safe products for animal feed.

At the end of 2017, 73% of our total factories in the U.S. – spanning confections, dairy, frozen and refrigerated meals, ice cream, baking ingredients, and beverages – are now landfill-free, contributing zero waste for disposal.

Nestlé USA distribution centers are also landfill-free, meaning that all the waste generated from our normal operations is reused, recycled, or converted to energy.

Leveraging Partnerships to Fight Waste

We use recycled materials for our packaging where they are proven by product lifecycle analyses to be equal or better in environmental performance, and do not jeopardize the quality, performance, safety, or consumer acceptance of our foods and beverages. However, the challenges we currently face in collecting and recycling packaging materials cannot be tackled alone, so multi-stakeholder action at scale is vital.

Nestlé Purina PetCare and Nestlé USA participate in Materials Recovery for the Future (MRFF), an industry research collaboration committed to finding recovery solutions for flexible plastic packaging in the U.S.

Nestlé Waters North America invested $6m in Closed Loop Fund, a $100 million social impact investment fund financing comprehensive recycling infrastructure and programs in cities across the United States.

Nestlé Waters North America works with national organizations like Keep America Beautiful and their local affiliates to inspire behavior change and increase access points for consumers to recycling, helping to mitigate plastic waste for communities in water crisis.

In the U.S., Nestlé USA, Gerber, and Nestlé Waters North America are all members of the Sustainable Packaging Coalition’s How2Recycle program, designed to keep recoverable materials out of landfills.

Sustainable Packaging Innovations

Packaging provides a variety of functions, from preventing food waste and maintaining shelf life to providing convenience and information for consumers. We take a holistic approach to designing our packaging, assessing environmental impacts across our entire life cycle. We aim for performance and functionality while optimizing weight and volume.

In April 2018, Nestlé announced our global ambition to make 100% of our packaging recyclable or re-usable by 2025 through eliminating non-recyclable plastics, encouraging use of plastics that allow for better recycling rates, and working to eliminate or change complicated combinations of packaging materials such as paper/plastics and laminates. From 2015-2017, we eliminated more than 100,000 tons of packaging materials from our global production processes.

In 2018, we announced the introduction of a 700-mL Nestlé Pure Life bottle made from 100% food grade recycled plastic, known as rPET. Since 2005, we have reduced the amount of PET plastic in Nestlé Pure Life half-liter bottles by 40%.

To date, we have undertaken many initiatives to reduce waste and reuse materials in packaging across our portfolio of beverages:

100% of our single-serve bottles of Arrowhead Brand Mountain Spring Water and Nestlé Pure Life Purified Water produced in California are made with 50% recycled plastic. To accomplish this, we work with a number of strategic suppliers including CarbonLITE, one of the largest producers of food-grade, post-consumer recycled PET. We are also expanding our roster of suppliers to purchase even more recycled plastic, which we plan to use in our other bottled water brands across the country.

Through global alliances such as the Trash Free Seas Alliance, founding of the bio-PET NaturALL Bottle Alliance, and investments in large-scale organizations like Closed Loop Fund, Keep America Beautiful, and start-ups like RecycleUp, Nestlé is collaborating with stakeholders across the PET value chain to create shared solutions to one of the world’s most pressing environmental issues.

Where we make an impact

Driven by our company purpose to enhance quality of life and contribute to a healthier future, we have defined three overarching ambitions which will guide our work towards achieving our 2020 commitments and supporting the achievement of the UN Sustainable Development Goals. Our global efforts in these areas are supported through 42 commitments.